Retirement Planning

Retirement Retirement seems to be one of the most often overlooked areas of people’s future plan. Simply because it seems so far away, it is an area that is subject to procrastination. People are expected to live longer now than ever before, this is another reason why young adults and teenagers are not worried about saving for their retirement. The baby boom generation, the seventy seven million people born between 1943 and 1960, face an entirely different retirement plan. As they began to retire, people are starting to think that there will be no money left and this will turn into a crisis. What will happen when seventy-seven million baby boomers begin to want the money they paid in… but it is not there? Retirement provisions such as Social Security, IRA’s, and 401k’s are there to help when you are deciding how to save money. Social Security started a long time ago, in the 1930’s, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president. He was elected president in November 1932. By March there were over thirteen million people that were unemployed, and almost every bank was closed. Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a sweeping program to being recovery to business and to agriculture and relief to those who were in fear of losing their farms and homes to being unemployed. In 1935, recovery was slowing arriving, but more And more people were turning against Roosevelt’s New Deal program. This led Roosevelt to a new program of reform, which we know today as social security. It stated heavier taxes on the wealthy, new way of controlling banks and public utilities, and a huge work relief program for those people who were unemployed. Social Security has been around for so long, but now people under the age of sixty-five think it will go bankrupt before they retire, according to a new CNN/TIME poll, and most of them do not think they will be able to save enough on their own. Only thirty-one percent say that the system is currently in a crisis; majority just feels that there are problems but not a crisis. The way you feel about Social Security is based totally on what age you are. People over fifty seem to think the system is fair while others feel it is not. In the Industrial Age, a Defined Benefit pension plan meant that the company guaranteed you, the worker, and a defined amount of money for as long as you lived. This made people feel secure because these plans assured a stead...

... middle of paper ...

... will take your retirement, even if it seems too far ahead, more seriously. I am including these graphs and a questionnaire to let you see some statistics of U.S. citizen’s opinions. From a CNN/POLL: Financial Condition of Social Security Crisis 31% Problems, not a crisis 55% No problem 10% Asked of all Americans Will Social Security go bankrupt before you retire? Yes 54% No 42% Asked of Americans under age of 65 If Social Security did not exist, could you save enough to retire? Yes 44% No 52% Asked of Americans under age of 65 Who should control Social Security Investments? Individuals 80% Government 14% Asked of all Americans Investing in a stock market is a good idea Now 57% 1994 38% 1990 26% Asked of all Americans Will Congress and Clinton be able to fix Social Security? Yes 43% No 46% Asked of all Americans Is Social Security fair to people your age? Yes No 18-34 years 41% 52% 35-49 years 46% 45% 50-64 years 61% 27% Over 64 years 80% 15%

Bibliography

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/04/10/polls/social.security/ U.S. News Magazine, Turning 40, March 20, 2000. Vol. 128, number 11 www.usnews.com, 2000 Benefits that last a Lifetime, 1997 Retirement solutions pamplet.